The Rams made no splashy picks.
Not one of the six gamers common supervisor Les Snead and coach Sean McVay selected will probably be penciled in as opening-game starters.
They spent three days filling out a roster that was already Tremendous Bowl prepared.
However the Rams, arguably, gained the 2025 NFL draft.
And set themselves as much as presumably win subsequent 12 months’s draft as effectively.
Snead protege James Gladstone, the first-year common supervisor of the Jacksonville Jaguars, made headlines on the primary evening of the draft by buying and selling as much as take cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter with the second total choose.
However when Snead later traded to the Atlanta Falcons what for the Rams was a reasonably meaningless No. 26 choose, the Rams stunningly acquired in return a No. 1 choose in 2026.
Which means the Rams, who in the future within the not-so-distant future should exchange veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, could have two first-round picks subsequent 12 months in a draft that would embrace Texas quarterback Arch Manning and others.
Which means Snead — who famously uttered “F them picks” after constructing a Tremendous Bowl championship staff in 2021 — could have loads of draft capital to wheel and cope with for a prospect or a longtime participant.
And few common managers deal like Snead.
Subsequent April marks the tenth anniversary of Snead buying and selling up a document 14 picks to pick out quarterback Jared Goff with the No. 1 choose within the 2016 draft.
That deal required the Rams to surrender their first-round choose, two second-round picks and a third-round choose that 12 months and a 2017 first-round and third-round choose.
Two years later the Rams had been within the Tremendous Bowl.
In 2019, Snead packaged two first-round picks in a deal for cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Two years later the Rams gained the Tremendous Bowl.
Oregon tight finish Terrance Ferguson takes half in a drill on the NFL scouting mix in February. Ferguson was the Rams’ high choose of the 2025 NFL draft.
(Michael Conroy / Related Press)
They did that, in fact, after Snead despatched Goff — and two first-round draft picks — to the Detroit Lions in a 2021 commerce for Stafford.
This season the Rams are anticipated to make one other deep run within the playoffs. And if Thursday evening’s commerce helps the Falcons make the playoffs, the Rams’ first-round picks subsequent 12 months may very well be within the backside third of the draft.
Regardless, it’s priceless draft capital.
And if the Falcons or Rams falter, the Rams may find yourself with a choose within the high third.
Not that McVay acknowledged his anticipation.
“One year’s like dog years to me in coaching,” he stated, chuckling, “That’s a long way away.”
After making that commerce on the primary evening of the draft, the Rams spent Friday and Saturday augmenting a proficient roster with their fewest picks for the reason that Goff commerce left them with solely six in 2016.
Auburn working again Jarquez Hunter breaks away for a landing in opposition to Alabama State in September 2021.
(Butch Dill / Related Press)
They took Oregon tight finish Terrance Ferguson within the second spherical, Michigan outdoors linebacker Josaiah Stewart within the third, Auburn working again Jarquez Hunter within the fourth, Ohio State defensive deal with Ty Hamilton and Mississippi linebacker Chris Paul Jr. within the fifth and Pittsburgh receiver Konata Mumpfield within the seventh.
The Rams traded up 3 times.
“We said, ‘instead of waiting,’ and I call it, let the draft happen to you, ‘let’s go attack the draft,’” Snead stated. “And when you do that you have to give up some picks. But we thought that was the more appropriate thing to do.”
No, the Rams didn’t draft a cornerback.
However that solely makes it extra obvious {that a} potential reunion with Ramsey may be imminent.
Approaching the heels of the Rams’ success within the earlier two drafts, this class initiatives to incorporate a number of contributors for a staff that superior to the NFC divisional spherical final season earlier than dropping to the eventual Tremendous Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles.
With Stafford getting into his seventeenth NFL season, and rising stars equivalent to receiver Puka Nacua, Kobie Turner, Jared Verse and different younger gamers quickly changing into eligible for extensions, the Rams are going all in subsequent season.
And they’re going to do the identical in 2026, when the NFL season will finish with Tremendous Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams’ savvy however efficient 2025 draft units them up for an additional attainable title.
